So I have looked back at the last few years worth of Cyber Attacks, and I started thinking about it. What types of attacks can we expect in 2025? I mean we could just say that what we had seen in 2024 will be what we will see in 2025, but I think it deserves a second thought.
So lets go through my picks for the top Cyber Attacks I think will be most common in 2025.
Number 1. Something I think a lot of security experts are overlooking is the possibility of AI-Driven attacks. This is something that has only started to come up very recently, but I believe this will become more common as we head through 2025. The power of AI in Cyber Attacks is in its ability to constantly adapt. The theory right now is that with AI it can change its attack pattern based on encountered security measures such as multiple endpoints using a certain security which blocks certain ports it tries to do reconnaissance on. Researching the ways AI can be involved, I have found that it can affect most ways attacks are carried out. Such as with AI-Driven Malware that is created based on data of other malware being detected in specific ways and it trying to hide the malware payload by constantly adapting. That said I do believe that Cyber Security Solutions will definitely improve as well, but with so many possibilities with how AI works we could see some very dangerous attacks rise up from AI involvement.
Number 2. Ransomware will continue to be a large threat in 2025 as there is just too much money for attackers to make for it to go away. Ransomware is the encryption of data and computers, which is then held at ransom. A good example of this is lets say multi million dollar agricultural company has decided to use relaxed Cyber Security practices which results in a breach in the network or a computer. This breach would then allow the attacker to place the ransomware malware on a system in the network. The attacker then activates the malware which encrypts multiple computers on the network asking for money usually through Bitcoin. After this happens, there really is only two options. One option is to work with law enforcement and potentially get some data back when paying that ransom. The second and most successful option is to have one of your full backups that you had kept offsite be able to restore your systems. This is how it works, but you can protect yourself by having strong security and regular backups.
Number 3. Denial of Service is another one that is here to stay and in fact may only get more serious as time goes on. Think of all of the devices that interface with the internet in some way, such as with IOT appliances. Even factories and power plants have many of their devices interface with the internet at some point. With Denial of Service there is most certainly another goal involved as this type of attack is for denying a particular service. The reasoning behind this is for stopping a service that protects a computer from another attack the attacker wants to use. The attackers goal could be to bring security down so that he could steal information from a computer.
Number 4. Cloud Breaching attacks are a specific type of attack that just deals with resources and infrastructure in the cloud. This could be an attack targeting a key SQL server or storage container containing large quantities of text documents. These usually involve other attack types, such as a Denial of Service or ransomware. I believe this type of attack will be more common as time goes on because lots of companies and even government entities use the cloud to store data and run servers. That said, what you can do is improve the security of the resources on the cloud such as with the Cloud based Firewall for any cloud based infrastructure or with access control with any data storage containers. The other thing is to make sure to have available backups that can be retrieved if one of your cloud resources is attacked.
Number 5. Advanced Persistent Threats are large groups which are in many cases funded by government entities. These types of threats will likely continue because they can be sponsored by government and in many cases actually be a part of the government. An APT is one which is described as a stealthy threat actor, and as the name implies a persistent one. An APT will gain unauthorized access to a business or even a government entities computer and perform what is called espionage. Espionage is where they will steal important data, such as critical passwords of various accounts or other secretive data. An example of an APT could be if lets say China sponsors a group of hackers and tells them to gain access to the servers that have information on power plants in a section of another country.
Number 6. The last one I would like to mention is Supply Chain attacks which affects software providers like ones that businesses and governments use. An example of this would be how Solar Winds was attacked by infiltrating the Solar Winds network and adding malicious code. These types of attacks can be dangerous as people will put a lot of trust into applications or software that has been reliable for them thus far. That said, you can try your best to be aware of this by doing research on software which you will be relying on. If you have a business that uses a Project Management software which syncs to private cloud servers for instance, you will want to make sure that the provider has a good track record.
These are just a few of the many attack types that will be a part of 2025, but based on what I have researched these are the most probable. Looking at these I can see that in fact a lot of these attacks overlap with each other such as AI and ransomware or Denial of Service and an Advanced Persistent Threat. In any case we will have to see exactly what types of attacks will be the most common. For now, we should prepare and spend time thinking about the best ways to protect ourselves. If you have any thoughts you would like to share with us, you can go to our contacts page and contact us from there.
